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The Island: Introduction

It is the age of exploration and there are fortunes to be made for those bold enough to go looking for them! One island chain, far out in the Melusine Sea has been attracting prospectors and traders since its discovery due to its rich exotic plant and animal life, and the discovery of rare gems and precious metals in the mines. Occasionally, even artefacts from extinct civilisations are discovered, making the islands a constant source of interest to pirates and traders hoping to make a name for themselves. So far most have returned home empty-handed. Just before the onset of the winter storms last year, wild rumours started flying that a group of miners had finally uncovered an extremely rare and valuable treasure in one of the outlying islands, but that some catastrophe struck before it could be brought off the island. Now, with the original finders all presumed dead, the treasure is just sitting abandoned and waiting to be claimed. All through the winter months adventurers and glory-hunters have been flocking to the southern coasts, eager to hire ships and be the first to reach the mine in the spring.

As it happens, the first ship to actually reach the island the following spring is a small caravel, owned and commanded by humans but crewed largely by goblin and kobold slave-labourers. By leaving early in the season, the ship attempted to outrun the competition and reach the island first, but the voyage didnt quite go to plan and a violent storm wrecked the ship on the reefs surrounding one of the islands in the chain. The only survivors were a small group of goblins who were lucky enough to have been working above decks when the ship sank, and who now find themselves washed up on the beach amongst all the flotsam and jetsam of their little ship.

As luck would have it, it would appear that they have washed up on the very island they were searching for. It would also appear that they are indeed the first group to reach it. Perhaps this is also a chance for the goblins to claim the treasure for themselves and win fame and glory for themselves. Perhaps it is a chance to buy their way out of the slavery that has bound them for so many years. Or perhaps it is simply a chance to escape. Whatever they choose, they wont be alone here for long. Treasure seekers and glory hunters from all across the realm are racing here to make a claim for the islands mysterious prize as we speak, and will fight tooth and nail to get it. If the goblins want to find it first, its going to take every ounce of their skill and cunning to do so, not to mention a fair amount of luck! Of course, first of all they might want to do something about those shackles...

Turn 0

Stunned at their good fortune in surviving the storm which appears to have utterly destroyed the little ship and killed everyone on board, the goblins realise a couple of things: firstly, they are still shackled in pairs by their wrists, which is going to be a pretty big hindrance to them pretty quickly if they can't get them off. One of the crew used to keep the keys for the slaves chains, but you're not sure which one... Secondly, it looks like Sink or Swim didn't survive the storm either... She was only a young goblin too, and was unfortunately was chained to Dies. -------------------Players: You are now free to explore the island at your leisure. You have 20 turns of daylight to explore before nightfall (which comes on turn 21). Tomorrow, the 'invaders' will start arriving to challenge you, so use the break to prepare however you see fit. Remember the rules about making camp and eating to regain health too. You can travel in any direction unless there's an obvious barrier to movement, but I'll usually point those out if they exist. You are shackled together in the following pairs: 1. Write & Swallows 2. Shackled & Spreads 3. Protects & Silver 4. Dies & Sink [deceased] Because he's chained to a corpse, Dies is restricted to 1 move OR 1 major action per turn until he lightens his load. Write has been voted as Teller and Protects as Chieftess. Both their character sheets have been updated accordingly.

Turn 1

The goblins set about exploring their new surroundings. "Hey Shackled, maybe we should search this body first. It might have the key on it." "I guess we could do that, I just guessed some of the others would do that. Let's just find that key right away so Treasures don't have to carry Sinks around. Shackled and Spreads decide to search the (very dead) red-haired human and find a Belt Knife and a small Leather Pouch containing 4 copper coins but no key... Damn. "Oh... Oh, no! Poor Sink! Ah... Is everybody else okay? Write, I'd like to check out that chest up there, are you up for that?" That sounds fine to me, Swallows. Maybe we'll find something useful inside it... Swallows and Write try to open the chest, but it seems to be locked and they can't open it with just their hands... The mechanism looks pretty rusty though - maybe they can force it open with something? Treasure attempts to break his chains with his hands, but they're way too strong for that. Those slavers certainly knew what they were doing when they locked you all up. "Uh...I...I think we should go check the guard and see if we can get Treasure free..." "Careful, they might still be alive..." "Oh...right. Best to keep guard. I...I think we should...maybe stick to ...er I mean be with the others...for uh saftey?" Silver and Kin search the bald guard and find him to be just as dead as his companion. He is carrying a Cutlass, which at least still seems to be sharp, if not very fancy but no keys. Curses!

Silver and Kin then head north away from the rest of the group and discover a little grove of coconut trees and a bunch of weird monkey things. -----------------------------

Turn 2

"Oh ...good...food and...potential weapons?" "I think these could be creatures named 'ring-tailed lemurs', but I am no expert on animals on tropical islands. Lets hope they don't prove aggressive, and also lets each grab a coconut or two and get back to the others. You may very well have a point about staying together for safety for a little while. At least until we get rid of the shackles, so we can dodge or run away better." "...Won't be the uh...first time something silvery got me into trouble...lets keep moving...from these...lemurs?" Silver and Kin cautiously head into the little grove of trees and start collecting the coconuts. The monkey-things watch in curiosity, screeching loudly at the two goblins and hopping around in the branches, but they don't do much else. The goblins collect all eight [Coconuts] (split between them) and head back to the south where the others are.

"Oh, cool, a weapon, just what we need to pry open this chest!"

Swallows uses the cutlass to try and force the chest open. It's a clumsy tool for the job unfortunately, but she's able to crack the lock without damaging the blade. Unfortunately, as the lock gives way, the sword slips andSwallows accidentally stabs Write with it for 2 DAM! Ouch! Inside the chest, the goblins find some rolls of old parchment. Most of them seem to be damaged beyond repair, but there's one that still looks dry enough to read. Write offers up a small prayer to Maglubiyet (Mags if you prefer), but nothing seems to happen... "Hey, Swallows, mind trying to free me with that cutlass?" "What? Oh, you want to, uhm, right. I mean, here you go." Treasure collects the cutlass and sets about trying to cut through his chains. They're still far too strong and well-made for that to work though so he gives up before he blunts the blade. "greedy goblins... all the useful stuff for themself" What was that? I don't mind if you would carry the stuff around instead so I don't have to be the pack horse.

Shackled grabs the belt knife and then goes to check the barrel with Spreads where they find 12 Juicy Apples. Tasty! There's no tools or weapons that they can see though, so they leave the food where it is and head east to explore some more of the island. The coastline extends to the north ahead of them. ------------------------Cutlass: 1-handed blade, +2 ATT. Belt Knife: 1-handed blade, +1 ATT. Coconuts: Rock solid seeds of the coconut palm. Each provide enough food for 1/2 meal (if you can get into them).

A couple more notes [EDIT]: Lingrem, if you want to RP into your role as Teller that is absolutely fine by me and there are no penalties for doing so (i.e. the things you attempt will have the same chance of success whether Write knows of her powers or not). Same goes for Kin.

Turn 3

"I'm sorry Sink, but I can't stay like this..." Treasure uses the cutlass to chop of Sink's right arm. The other goblins are either too busy dealing with their own problems, or look away in disgust while he works. However, Treasure is now free of the burden of Sink'scorpse, although he is still shackled to her [Dismembered Arm]. Meanwhile, the others are dealing with their own problems. "Write! Oh, oh no! I'm so sorry! Are you okay? Quick, how many fingers am I holding up? Let's try to make you a bandage." "Ouch!! I guess Maglubiyet wasn't happy that I asked for help finding the keys..." "Great Maglubiyet, what happened here? I'm gone for just a little while and when I come back, one of you is bleeding! Who caused that, and where did the miscreant go?" "Oh, Kin, Swallows and I were opening the chest...and the sword sorta slipped and got me. It hurts like no tomorrow, and I pray that we'll find the keys soon. Swallows, no offense, but I'd rather keep my distance from you for a while, at least until I've healed!" "Well, accidents happen, but be please be more careful from now on. I'd like to think that we didn't survive all that the humans put us through, just to stab each other to death..." Swallows tears a piece of cloth off the bald guy's shirt and ties it around Write's wound creating a [makeshift bandage]. It helps a little and may even speed up the healing given a bit of time. Write distracts herself from the hole in her side by reading the undamaged parchment, which she recognises almost immediately from her work with Wizard Jenkins. Turns out it's a [Lesser Scroll of Seabreeze]. Lucky you! Silver grabs the other [Ruined Parchments] from the chest, but there's nothing left on them that's legible. Kin grabs the apples then sets about stripping the clothes from the humans, starting with the ginger guy. She collects a [Medium Yellow Shirt], [Medium Brown Trousers] and [Medium Black Leather Boots]. The clothes are too big for the goblins (who are size Small) in their current state, but could maybe be made to fit with a bit of work. It's all just cloth though and won't provide any defensive

benefits. She doesn't have time to strip the second guy this turn.

To the east, Spreads and Shackled are discussing how best to reach the floating barrel... "Let's try how far we can go without swimming. I don't want to risk going much further then that. And maybe we can use those planks and the sail to make something." "Hmm we could maybe make some sort of net. with the sail and boards. but lets see if we can reach it." "Okay let's go, and if we can't reach it maybe we can use the planks to paddle towards it and be relatively safe." "We might be able to get it if it is within an arm reach or two and one of us gets out and grabs it and the other stay on ground and drag the other of us in again." "Smart plan, lets do that." Carefully, the two goblins wade as far out to sea as they can without going out of their depth, which isn't very far at all - the beach is steep here and they can feel the current tugging at them even this close to shore. Shackledplants his feet firmly in the sand and holds tight to the shackles as Spreads slowly edges out into deeper water. As soon as his feet leave the bottom though the current starts dragging him north and he is unable to swim against it to reach the barrel. Maybe if he was a stronger swimmer he could get to it, but as things stand they'll need a new plan. --------------------[Dismembered Arm]: Shackled to Treasure's left arm. Cannot be unequipped until the shackles are opened. [Lesser Scroll of Seabreeze]: Scroll used to summon a gentle wind to aid with seafaring and navigation. 3 uses. [Juicy Apples]: x12. Each provide food for 1/2 meal. [Makeshift bandage]: May assist with healing, given enough time. [Medium Yellow Shirt]: The shirt from one of the dead humans. [Medium Brown Trousers]: The trousers from one of the dead humans. [Medium Black Leather Boots]: The boots from one of the dead humans. A Note on Scrolls: Scrolls are written by wizards and are designed to be read by laymen and enthusiast magicians. As such, their powers are limited to what is contained within the scroll, but you do have a little control over area of use and the target. If you wish to use a scroll, please describe what you intend to do

with it - you might not get what you wish for, but it helps me figure out what you mean (and avoids wasting a scroll-use through some misunderstanding). Turn 4

Shackled and Spreads attempt to reach the barrel using the sail from the beach, but since theres nothing for it to hook the barrel with its not very effective. At least they dont get swept away.

Swallows and Write have a bit more success with their method and use one use of the Seabreeze scroll to blow it into the shore. It should be easy to reach now.

Meanwhile, Treasure explores further north and discovers a little enclosed area within the cliffs and a ladder leading upwards.

Kin and Silver head west looking for more exciting discoveries, and find a little more carnage than they were expecting...

Turn 5

...Kin does not deal well with the situation, and frightens Silver. Swallows and Write arrive from the east.

Treasure continues to explore and finds himself on the edge of a thick, dark jungle.

Shackled and Spreads investigate the barrel and are delighted to discover that its full to the brim with rum. Tasty, tasty rum.

Turn 6

Write and Swallows use the scroll again to blow the second chest back to the beach. Its super effective! Silver inspects the dark stone and finds it cool to the touch despite the hot tropical sun.

Then they explore further to the north, where they find a large turtle and another dead human amongst the wreckage of the ship.

Treasure decides the jungle looks too creepy for now and heads back towards the others.

Swallows and Spreads sample the rum to make sure its definitely good and then toddle off north. They are both now [Tipsy].

Turn 7

"Oh Maglubiyet, please help us find the keys!" "AH! By Maggie's Festering Molar, why do humans have this unnatural obsession with locking their chests?! We shouldn't leave this lying around in case there are other, non-goblin, survivors. What do you think, shall we bury the chest so it doesn't fall into the wrong hands until we find a crowbar or something?" "I don't think it matters too much...I'm sure we could break it open... if we maybe don't use a sword or knife this time... Or we could finish looking for the keys first." "Key! Of course! Writes, you're a genius! I can't believe I didn't think of that myself..." Swallows drags the chest further up the beach, retches noisily for a few minutes and eventually barfs up a small key. It's like a little metal island in a sea of stomach acid. Inevitably, it does not fit the chest. "Figures... there must've been dozens of locks on that ship, and who knows? This key might have belonged to the human's front door, and not to any lock that was actually on the ship at all... You know what? I think I've got it wrong uptil now. This key can only ever open one lock. There's no way that one thing could be so important that our teller would've named me for it. A name is supposed to inspire you, and lead you to your destiny! I'm going to learn how to open any lock, even without a key!" Swallows wipes the worst of the vomit off the key and swallows it again. Write concentrates VERY hard on praying and NOT on her rather disgusting companion. Miraculously, she sonehow manages to keep her breakfast down. Just when she's about to give up, she hears a voice whisper in her ear so close to her that she startles and looks around in surprise. "As you wish." Write feels a warm breeze gently tug at her, enticing her northwards. For some reason, she has a strong desire to go and see Silver and Kin...

A reason which is quickly explained. To the north, Silver cautiously pats the giant turtle, which grumbles at her. It does indeed seem to be in the middle of laying a clutch of eggs, so both goblins decide to leave her to it and instead loot the crap out of the ex-human. It seems that this guy was more important than the others, or was at least richer, because he's got some fancy clothes. Silver searches him and finds a [Coin Pouch] around his neck containing 4 silver and 2 copper coins and a small glass vial and a [Ring of Iron Keys] hooked onto his belt. Finally! She takes them both. Kin searches the corpse as well, stripping him of all his clothes. She collects a [Red Silk Shirt], [Purple Silk Trousers], [Deerskin Boots] and a [Leather belt].

To the east, Shackled and Spreads are using their mild tipsiness as an excuse for all kinds of silliness... "Are we going to do this? Lets scare them!" " *Hiccup* Fly, birdies! Fly!"

"Shall we see what is behind the sandy hill?" Treasure arrives to investigate the black stone, but he doesn't have enough actions to do that this turn.

The two sort-of almost drunk goblins then charge off north to another new area. By the time they've finished cavorting around they realise they are completely sober again. That's probably just as well because this place looks dangerous... -----------------------[Coin Pouch]: Contains 4sp, 2cp & a glass vial [Ring of Iron Keys]: Keys made of iron on a ring. [Red Silk Shirt]: Medium-sized silk shirt. [Purple Silk Trousers]: Medium-sized silk trousers. [Deerskin Boots]: Medium-sized hide boots. [Leather belt]: An ordinary belt.

Turn 8

Silver tries the keys on their shackles. "Are we free?" Hells yeah you are! The shackles drop to the sand and the goblins celebrate! "We are free! Yey!" "Great job, Silver! Thanks a lot. What? No, please keep the keys and use them to free every other goblin from their chains. But please make sure we keep all of them, we might be able to put them to good use." Write and Swallows arrive from the south, guided by Writes totally-not-crazy hallucinations. Swallows brings her pet plank along for the trip. The keys! Thank you Maglubiyet, you are magnificent! Umm, Kin, could you try to unlock us? Also, if that works...is there any chance I could wear the shirt? I'm used to wearing clothes and I feel rather... naked...like this." "There you go, but it won't fit. I would like to try some tailoring later, but I need a blade and a needle, and possibly some thread for this, too. In the meantime, walk carefully, so you don't trip." Finally set free, Write sets about not becoming naked, and offers her thanks to the almighty Maglubiyet for his benevolence. At least, she hopes that was the voice of Maglubiyet, because otherwise she probably is going crazy. Swallows inspects her plank of wood for a nail, and finds a beautiful [Steel Nail]. It's still straight and not at all rusty. It seems a small thing to waste a natural 20 on, but whatever. It's a very, very nice nail.

Kin checks the string around the dead human's neck, but finds it was actually the string from the pouch (which Silver picked up last turn). With nothing left to do here, she heads east... where she meets the two sadly-not-drunk-any-more goblins who have decided to come and be freed! At least, Shackled does. Spreads has spaced out, so Shackled just drags him along with him* "It's not that I don't like you Spreads, but lets go get this shackle of our wrists!".

Silver sneaks south. Not a single one of the corpses notices her arrive.

Treasure inspects the black rock and finds it is also cool to the touch, just like the last one. The stone's surface is perfectly smooth, with tiny silver flecks glittering in it. It reminds him of a night sky. --------------------------

Turn 9

Kin heads south, grabs the coconuts she left there before and then heads east.

"It's a sign! Oh, praise and thanks, Maglubiyet! Of all the planks on the island, you placed the perfect nail right in the one I happened to pick up and search for a lockpick! I knew I was right about my name! Now I just have to keep it away from Silver." "Hello Turtle... we mean you no harm. You look very wise and gentle, so if you can understand me, is there anything nearby that we've missed, that might help us? Food and fresh water to drink I think would be really helpful right now...but anything at all that you think is important would be very appreciated." Swallows fiddles with the lock for a while, trying to unlock it, but it's pretty difficult and she doesn't manage to get it open this turn. A bit more practice should do it though. Write does a really good job of convincing everyone she's not crazy by spending 10 minutes talking to the turtle. When it (inevitably) doesn't respond to her chat, she goes to check out what the human is lying on. Turns out it's a big bit of wood - probably the door from a cabin or something similar. It looks pretty solid though and can probably be put to any number of ingenious uses.

Silver tries the keys on the treasure chest, but none of them fit. She attempts to sneak to the east but since the only living things here are a bunch of telepathically-linked goblins, who seem to already know she's here, she has no idea if she's doing it right. Maybe she should find something less gobliny or dead to practice on? Spreads, Shackled and Treasure converge on the beach around Silver, but there's no time to unlock them this turn. --------------------------Re. Major / Minor actions - 'Skilling' is generally a major action, so things like sneaking, lockpicking, tailoring etc. are all majors.

Turn 10

"Okay, I've got this. There! No. Wait, here we go... no. Oh, oh, now I've got it!" Swallows continues to fiddle with the lock and after a great deal of muttering to herself, it springs open! Hooray! With some more practice she could probably get pretty good at this lockpicking malarky! Pleased with her success, she moves south towards greater challenges...

Silver, in a minor display of rule-bending for the sake of expediency, manages to unlock both sets of shackles to the delight of the others and then sneaks to the north. The tree-monkey-things appear completely oblivious to her arrival. Cool!

Kin notices that the day is half done and explores her patch of beach for anything unusual. To her disappointment, the water here isn't fresh and there seems to be very little in there except for a few small holes. They might be burrows or they might just be holes, but she can't tell. She then heads south, where a newly-freed and extremely happy Shackled is waiting to give her his knife. She takes it and adds it to her already enormous collection of things. The wind seems to have died down.

The other goblins decide that some more exploring is in order. Treasure and Spreads head back towards the jungle.

Write heads north to explore the last bit of beach and finds a little lagoon. How nice! ---------------------------------Entering a new area / attacking will end your turn so Write can't explore the new area till next turn.

Turn 11

"Just you and me, now, chest. Let's see what you've got!" Swallows settles down with the chest and the ever-so-nice nail and sets to work. The mechanism is far more complex than the one on the shackles, but it should be possible to crack it eventually... The wind dies down.

Write is momentarily overwhelmed by the sheer possibilities available to her, but eventually decides to check if the water is drinkable only to discover that it's still saltwater (damn) and investigate the black stone thing. It is also cool to the touch, but she doesn't learn anything that the others haven't already figured out.

Silver sneaks to the north and arrives at the ladder. Unfortunately, her sneaking efforts are rather wasted since there's nothing but a spaced-out pink goblin here to hide from. You're not sure he'd have noticed you anyway...

Shackled grabs a plank of wood and heads towards the jungle. The monkey-things screech at him when he arrives and bounce around in the trees.

Kin tries to grab the sail and push the barrel, but they are too big and unwieldy to be carried at the same time. She shoves the barrel onto its side and starts moving, but only gets as far as the next beach. Maybe with some help she could move faster, but shoving a full barrel through sand is hard work for one goblin on her own.

Treasure climbs the ladder and heads back up to the jungle on his own, since Spreads has spaced out. Again. ------------------------

Turn 12 (Salvaged from the forum crash)

Treasure checks to see if the water around the tree roots is potable. Its thick, gungy and very green and smells of swamp. Hes pretty sure there are things wriggling in it too. Long story short, its not going to be drinkable without some pretty serious cleaning.

Kin tries on some new clothes (which are very red) and manages to roll the barrel one area to the north where Shackled and Spreads are waiting to push it all the way up to the cliff. The monkeythings screech and leap around in the trees at the goblins below.

The barrel of rum arrives! It is obviously the most important thing to start a stockpile with.

Write heads south again to rejoin Swallows, who is continuing to work on the lock to the chest. She feels like shes getting somewhere with it, but then something pings inside the lock and a tiny needle shoots out and jabs her in the wrist! It burns a bit and she starts to feel unwell...

Silver steels herself and heads north into the deeper jungle. The forest is a LOT darker this far in and everything feels... well, creepy. --------------------------------------------------

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